Weekly Recap: Bitcoin at $61,000 and Binance Founder’s New Venture

Bitcoin ended the week above $65,000, the Fed maintained its key interest rate, the former CEO of Binance announced a new project, media reported on Do Kwon’s release from prison, and other events of the past week.

Bitcoin Price Dipped to $61,000

The leading cryptocurrency started the week above $68,000, but by Tuesday, March 19, its price had fallen below $64,000. The next day, the digital gold’s rate dropped to $61,000 before beginning to recover.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $65,600.

Most digital assets in the top 10 by market capitalization ended the week in the “red zone.” Exceptions were Dogecoin (+14.4%) and XRP (+1.4%).

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $2.6 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index is 53.4%.

Fed Maintains Key Rate at 5.25–5.5%

On March 20, the Fed maintained the key rate range at 5.25–5.5% per annum.

The decision met market expectations. According to the Fed, inflation has decreased over the past year but remains high. The agency also noted a low unemployment rate. In the long term, the Fed aims for 2% inflation and maximum employment.

Former Binance CEO Announces New Project

Former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), announced the launch of an educational platform, Giggle Academy.

The project is focused on providing free education from grades 1 to 12. According to Zhao, Giggle Academy is not profit-oriented, offering an “adaptive” and “gamified” approach to learning. 

“Creating a high-quality and popular educational platform, completely free and accessible to everyone, is the most important thing I can do in the next chapter of my life,” stated CZ.

Giggle Academy plans to use a system of points, ratings, and special badges in the form of non-fungible tokens to encourage students.

The former Binance CEO also announced hiring staff. He is looking for “teachers who can create digital content.” Zhao clarified that launching a new token is not part of his plans. 

Topics to Discuss with Friends

• Elon Musk announced a vision-restoring product from Neuralink.
• The creator of the meme coin Slerf accidentally burned all airdrop and LP tokens.
• Active members of the TON community will receive 30 million Toncoin.
• Crypto investors have shifted focus to RWA tokens and meme coins.

Media: Montenegro Releases Do Kwon from Prison

The High Court of Podgorica decided to release Terraform Labs (TFL) co-founder Do Kwon, as reported by Vijesti and Bloomberg.

According to the prison chief in Spuž, Darko Vukčević, Kwon was released on March 23 after completing his prison term for attempting to cross the border with forged documents.

The lawyer of the former TFL head, Goran Radić, also confirmed his release to the agency. Kwon’s passport will be confiscated to prevent him from leaving Montenegro before extradition.

Vitalik Buterin: Next Five Years “Crucial” for Ethereum

The next five years are “crucial” for the mass adoption of Ethereum and its acceptance in the “real world,” stated Vitalik Buterin.

According to him, in recent years, stablecoins have become the main use case for cryptocurrencies, as they provide seamless cross-border payments and protection against inflation for users in countries with unstable fiat currencies. 

Therefore, low fees and well-designed interfaces are crucial for attracting new users to “stablecoins,” Buterin believes. 

“Historically, blockchain didn’t have such things, but in the coming years they will appear. We already have L2, and we continue to move forward. I expect Ethereum to become a leading player that helps make stablecoins accessible to people, so they are truly open, decentralized, and without intermediaries,” he added. 

The Ethereum co-founder suggested that non-financial applications will significantly impact mass adoption. Buterin noted the success of decentralized social platforms like Farcaster and Lens as alternatives to X and Facebook.

He also highlighted the growing interest in identity and verification protocols in Ethereum amid increasing concerns about AI and deepfake threats.

Looking ahead, Buterin is excited about the Verkle trees feature, which will be implemented in the next Ethereum hard fork — Pectra. 

Also on ForkLog:

• MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin reserves exceeded 1% of the cryptocurrency’s supply.
• An analyst recorded 33 presales on the Solana network totaling $140 million.
• Coti will conduct a $10 million Coti v2 airdrop among native token holders.
• The Reddit crypto community token reached a new high.

Steve Wozniak Wins Legal Battle Against YouTube

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak won another round in his legal battle against YouTube over the use of fake videos of the entrepreneur for a fraudulent Bitcoin scheme.

The San Jose appellate court overturned a lower court’s ruling that freed the video hosting service from any liability. According to the decision, YouTube cannot rely on the protection of the CDA in this case.

The verdict allows Wozniak to continue his lawsuit against the platform and potentially paves the way for changes to the controversial legislative provisions that absolve services like YouTube from responsibility for hosted content, the agency noted.

In July 2020, the Apple co-founder joined a class action lawsuit claiming that the actions of fraudsters led to millions of dollars in losses among video hosting users. The scammers also acted on behalf of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Michael Dell.

Edited videos featuring them included promises of free cryptocurrency giveaways — users were asked to send Bitcoin to a specified address to receive double the amount back. 

According to a previous decision by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Sunil Kulkarni, YouTube is not liable for third-party content under Section 230 of the CDA.

However, the appellate court concluded that immunity cannot be applied due to a lack of proper checks. The judges noted that YouTube and its parent company Google are responsible for a “material contribution” to the fraud by providing verification badges to scammers. 

In the case at hand, one of the scam channels received a “checkmark” during the execution of the fraudulent scheme.

What Else to Read?

This week, ForkLog explained what L2 scaling solutions for Bitcoin are and which Bitcoin wallet to choose in 2024.

We also explored how the European AI regulation will impact the industry and what Sam Altman suggests spending trillions on.

In our traditional digest, we compiled the main events of the week in cybersecurity.

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new infrastructure investments and the growing attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of recent weeks are in ForkLog’s review.